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We shall perhaps be told that in such a state the man is no
longer alive: we answer that these people show themselves equally
unable to understand his inner life and his happiness.
If this does not satisfy them, we must ask them to keep in mind a
living Sage and, under these terms, to enquire whether the man is
in happiness: they must not whittle away his life and then ask
whether he has the happy life; they must not take away man and
then look for the happiness of a man: once they allow that the
Sage lives within, they must not seek him among the outer
activities, still less look to the outer world for the object of
his desires. To consider the outer world to be a field to his
desire, to fancy the Sage desiring any good external, would be to
deny Substantial-Existence to happiness; for the Sage would like
to see all men prosperous and no evil befalling anyone; but
though it prove otherwise, he is still content.
If it be admitted that such a desire would be against reason,
since evil cannot cease to be, there is no escape from agreeing
with us that the Sage's will is set always and only inward.
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